The passage through the mountains was surprisingly peaceful, there was the occasional attack from a single mountain lion or a pack of carnivorous goats when they were at the highest points of their journey, nothing really dangerous. When they heard the roar of a lesser dragon reverberate through the mountains, they all paused for a moment before hurrying on.

They had been lucky they didn't run into any of the more powerful monsters living in the mountains, they were more aggressive than their counterparts in the forests, as they had never learnt to stay away from humans and were more protective against intruders in their territory.

After the exhausting ascend, the mountain pass was easier to traverse. The road was cramped between huge mountain peaks, swaying up and down every so often. After three days in the mountains, they could see the plains they would be travelling through after leaving the boreal forest covering the western mountains in the distance. They would leave the plains after a few days and travel through the woods once again, until they arrived at the academy.

The academy and its small supporting town were in the middle of largely unused territory. While there was some farmland still used, the parts west of the mountains largely abandoned after the empire lost its access to the sea in the war. Most of the food was now produced in the more easily accessible plains of the eastern regions.

Eight days after they started to ascend the mountain pass, they left the mountains forests. For the first time in her life, Mary was truly in the open. While there was some farmland around the capital, it differed from the experience of real open grasslands in unimaginable ways. Everytime in her life so far, she had always seen some kind of wall blocking her vision, be it the orphanage’s wall or the forests surrounding the capital. There was nothing that could have prepared Mary for the experience, it was exhilarating and frightening at the same time. On the one side she never felt so free and on the other, she never felt as small as now. She could see most of those around her reacting similarly.

Plains were quite rare in the empire, most of its area was covered in huge forests, only the deserts in the southwest as well as the vast eastern plains and the slightly smaller western plains broke them up enough to be called more than a large clearing.

Most of the empire's cities used space formerly occupied by forest and cleared by the empire to built its cities.

Mary had obviously seen the forests from above, and intellectually knew the forests they had moved through until now were bigger than the plains, but seeing something through Starshadow’s eyes was different than seeing it herself.

From her ranger training, she knew plains were actually quite easy to hide in. The hills that made up the landscape worked perfect to conceal oneself, giving the unwary a feeling of safety that was misplaced.

Luckily she had Starshadow, the bird didn't have the same problems groundborn creatures had in the grasslands, and could just see the world from above. He was actually even better at spotting things without all the trees impending his sight.

She could see several small herbivores that peacefully ate grass just behind the next hill. They were a mix of mice and rabbits and the main reason the empire didn't use the western plains to grow food.

Their escorts had announced they would camp for the rest of the day and travel out in the open tomorrow. Mary sent Starshadow to catch one of the Dyns. They were unique to the western plains, and really hard to exterminate. She was sure Starshadow could cardy one of the smaller Dyns to her.

The creatures were quite stupid and didn't even notice when the falcon dove down to catch one of their number. It worked just as the bird had intended, his claws breaking the creatures neck, instantly ending its life. Using his magic, he managed to lift off with his prey again, the one he hunted for her wasn't a small Dyn, it was rather big from what she could tell. A minute later, she had a proud bird on her shoulder and a dinner in her hands.

Mary carefully stroked his head.

“Your bird can catch something for you?” One of the more decent nobles said.

“Sure, why wouldn't he, Dyns taste really good so he caught me one. He knows I don't eat his normal food, so he found something else for me.”

They retreated to the cover of the trees for the evening, Starshadow bringing her another five Dyns before eating one himself. Mary shared the meat with the others, something greatly appreciated because they didn't have to hunt for once.

On the next day, they set out to cross the plains. There only was a poor road to the academy, it was a path of dirt rather than a proper road really. They had split from the main road to the nearest city after leaving the mountains yesterday.

The plains were unlike a forest, the sounds around them for example. While the forest was alive with chattering of different birds and all the monsters living in it, most of the noise came from small insects in the grasslands. There were as many monsters around as in the forest, but they behaved differently, the monsters in the plain were keeping their quiet seemingly all the time.

Interestingly, the biggest problem in the plains proved to be the lack of firewood for the night. They took some with them as advised, but had used it up after the second night. The trees they saw were few and far between and didn't have much firewood around them.

Over the weeks, they had worked out a routine of who would do what each evening. Mary and some others mostly set out to find food as they were the most capable of their group. The firemage went to start a fire and take care of it. The rest took care of the horses, well except Elwood because the others feared him.

Even the nobles participated, though only after Mary kindly asked them. The commoners looked like they would do everything for them, letting all nobles do what they wanted, something she didn't support. After a few small sparks her fellow nobles had been eager to help as well.

They had to change that routine up now though, as there were no roots to find and berries were quite sparse as well. Mary and a few others hunted down the plentiful small game everywhere in the grasslands.

After a week of following the path winding through the hills, they once again reached a forest. There were some differences to the forests around the capital. The most notable of these was the decreased amount of evergreen trees. The further north they travelled the warmer the climate got, at least in the summers. Mary had heard the winters got colder the farther you were inland. The academy stood in the west north-west of the empire, near border nearest to the ocean, so the weather stayed even throughout the year because of the ocean.

They followed the path for the next day, until they reached a big clearing. They were expected by several older people who gave off no mana. So they were very powerful mages. Startled, Mary checked the their surroundings for the academy, but there were no buildings in within the fifty kilometers Starshadow could see.

“Welcome dear children, welcome to the tests of passage this year. We will be starting them in the morning, so rest and prepare, for the following week will be more strenuous than the whole journey so far!”

They stopped, louder than ever before and chatted with each other in excitement. Mary and her peers went to their duties a little distracted.

Arajes watched the group that arrived today. She was standing together with two of the other teachers. They had been waiting for an hour. Three days prior, they had received a message the new students would arrive today, so they came to the testing grounds, arriving late last night. The children arriving on the clearing were a lively bunch, three lizards, three dwarves, three elves and twelve humans like always.

The academy had two different pools of students, common and noble applicants. Because the empire had way too many nobles, especially in the capital, they only accepted a set number of nobles every year. The upper limit was set to fifty of the total slots every year, so they could always were able to choose the best of the noble applicants.

There a few reasons why nobles even applied to the same school as commoners, one of these being her and the other teachers, and the principal. They were among the most powerful adventurers in the empire, all of them at least in the upper upper ranks. They were known all throughout the empire. An academy like theirs wouldn't be successful in any other kingdom though. Because the empire had more nobles than territory and said territory was assigned by merit and not birth, there was a fierce competition among nobles to get their own territory to govern.

While personal achievements like they were earned at the academy were no garant to earn your own, they showed you had the willpower needed to achieve them. Finishing the academy took longer than most other magic schools, but a noble had to reach the age of twenty five to even be considered to lead his own house.

Of course, they only attracted a certain type of nobles, these being the adventures type, who already planned on travelling the world fighting monsters. While the training craftsmen visiting them got was superb, nobles had better schools to visit for such thing, that meant the only aspiring craftsmen visiting them were commoners.

They always tried to find an equal amount of all races, which worked better every passing year with their reputation increasing. The academy took in two hundred ten students every year. Apart from this group, which held the most promising of the applicants from the capital, there were ten more groups coming, two from the capital and eight from all over the empire.

The academy always had more possible students come than they would ultimately accept, as some would inevitably fail the tests.

She mentioned the leader of the group they had sent to escort the children to join her.

“Welcome back Vamafre, how was your journey?”

“Quite pleasant ma’am the children didn't cause too many problems, the only notable delay was caused by a group of bandits, we had to make a detour to deliver them to the nearest city!”

“I am glad to hear that. What can you tell me about them?”

“Who are you interested in?”

“Start with the non-humans.”

“Very well, the three lizards are like we expected, you should have no problems with them, one of them is a trained fighter though.

There is a rare talent among the elves, a sorcerer with dual affinity of plant and healing. He does need some self confidence though. The other two both have some sort of minor affinity and training as a ranger.

I can't say anything about the dwarves, they are all aspiring creators, two want to go the smith-enchanter route, while one wants to be an alchemist.”

“That's good, we already have so many fighters, the more creator the better! What about the human commoners?”

“There is a talented fire mage among them, apparently his parents were mages in the legions and trained him from a young age, I think he plans to go on the fire elementalist route. The other two are twins, coming from a relatively wealthy family. They couldn't be more different though, the boy really likes excitement, while the girl thinks all excitement too much. Both are proficient in basic spells and manacontrol.”

Arajes sighed, she really disliked nobility as a whole, living in their huge mansions and castles looking down on all others, but a big part of the academy was sponsored by them.

“What about the nobles, anything out of the ordinary?”

“Yes, two of them, the son of Count Beavergor is unfit for our academy in all ways, beyond the level of tolerance, he is arrogant to a fault and regards everyone as his lesser, even the other nobles.” There were always people like this one, they just weren't worth their time.

“And the other one?”

“Mary Falconbridge, she is his opposite, fair to everyone and incredibly smart and talented in magic. She has superb manacontrol for her age and a greater lightning affinity. Furthermore she had some serious ranger and sword training and stupid amounts of stamina. She has a crazily trained pet falcon as well.” That did indeed sound promising, the affinity alone meant she would have good chances being accepted if she didn't have some serious flaws.

“Where is she now?” She asked. Vamafre looked around.

“The one taking care of the great horse.” The girl pointed out was beautiful but small for her age, especially since Arajes knew her father,he was a giant of a man and his wife wasn't small either.

“I didn't know house Falconbridge had a daughter, I thought they only had sons so far?”

“The Baron held a ceremony three years prior, they found her in some orphanage in the capital.”

“That's some serious luck the Baron had, finding someone with a grater lightning affinity like that, I bet his rivals would grind their teeth if they knew.”

Arajes had to smile, while she held a grudge against most of nobility, the former grand duke was quite decent for a noble and the thought they got to develop the magical talent of the girl was even better. She would still have to complete the tests like everyone else though.

“Do you think she will manage the tests?” She asked Vamafre.

“I wouldn't worry ma’am, she could complete them by herself without problem.”